Rust memory safety explained
By Serdar Yegulalp
Senior Writer, InfoWorld |
Over the past decade, Rust has emerged as a language of choice for people who want to write fast, machine-native software that also has strong guarantees for memory safety.
Other languages, like C, may run fast and close to the metal, but they lack the language features to ensure program memory is allocated and disposed of properly. As noted recently by the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, these shortcomings enable software insecurities and exploits with costly real-world consequences. Languages like Rust, which put memory safety first, are getting more attention.
The first thing to understand about Rust's memory safety features is that they're not provided by way of a library or external analysis tools, either of which would be optional. Rust's memory safety features are baked right into the language. They are not only mandatory but enforced before the code ever runs.
